A/N: I am so sorry for the wait! I am extremely busy with school this year. Courses are much more difficult and they require more of my time. My updates will probably be pretty irregular.
Jules had troubles getting to sleep that night.
"Why didn't I kiss her? All I had to do was lean in a little more." He thought furiously. He turned over in his bed and groaned in frustration.
"Now I bet she won't even look at me-or worse, she'll laugh at me." He lay on his back looking at the ceiling, not feeling remotely tired.
"No, she won't laugh at me. I am good looking, so she has to be attracted to me."
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Somewhere not far away, Penny was laying in her bed feeling not much different that Jules.
"Why didn't he kiss me? Why didn't I kiss him? His lips were mere inches from mine." She was biting her fingernails like she always did when she was thinking about something.
"Great, now it'll be awkward the next time I see him." She let out a groan of frustration.
"No, I won't let it get awkward. We have to work together." She then tried to think about nothing and fall asleep. It was some time later she did eventually fall into a sleep filled with dreams a handsome young man with blonde hair.
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Jules woke up the next morning feeling very tired. He looked at his clocked and sighed. It read 6:24 am. He struggled to try and fall back to sleep, but it wasn't working.
He sighed again and sat up on his bed. Morning sunshine was already filtering into his room. He got up off the bed, crossed his room and opened the blinds fully. Usually this action makes him feel happy. Today, however, it only depressed him.
He had a hypnosis session with Scott today. This one was just with Scott and himself. Scott said he wanted them to know each other more before they started doing their hypnosis together.
Jules opened up his favourite book, Watership Down, and picked up reading where he last left off. He was immersed in the book and did not look up at the clock again until it was quarter to eight.
"Oh crap!" Jules exclaimed as he threw his book down on his bed and began to get dressed for the day. He hastily threw on some clothes, hoping that they were clean. He ran out his room without bothering to make his bed and he headed down toward the cafeteria.
After nearly running somebody over to get to breakfast, he grabbed a container of juice and an apple. He ate this quickly and as soon as he was finished, he high-tailed to the fourth floor of the Meadowvale Rehabilitation Center building to Scott's office.
"Rough night?" Scott asked, his voice filled with amusement. He looked over Jules in his dishevelled state. His hair was in complete disarray, and he was sweating and planting from running so hard.
Jules plunked himself down into one of the chairs in front of Scott's desk.
"You know, you can be a few minutes late. I won't mind." Jules glared at Scott who looked back with a large grin on his face.
"I know that, I just wasn't thinking." He responded with touch of anger.
"That is apparent." Scott replied. "But on to business!" Scott exclaimed before Jules had a chance to respond.
"Last time we were making great progress with your hypnosis so we'll pick up where we left off." Jules nodded as he was becoming more relaxed by the moment. Scott's voice had that affect on him. It was possibly because he was so used to being hypnotised.
"Follow me to the study and you can settle yourself down in the lounge chair." Jules got up and walked behind Scott into his study where his psychologist's chair was. Jules settled himself into the chair while Scott grabbed his clipboard and a pen.
"Alright Jules, you know what to do. Listen to my voice. It is soft and soothing."
Jules closed his eyes and focused all of his attention of the words Scott was saying.
"You are becoming more and more relaxed with each word that I say." Jules was barely aware of himself as he went into a sleep-like state.
"Okay Jules, I want you to concentrate on your facial features. Picture them very clearly in your minds eye. Do you see yourself Jules?" He nodded his head yes in response.
"Now try to imagine which part of your features came from you mother, and which came from your father." Jules lay there in silence for a while as Scott watched him intently. It almost looked like Jules was sleeping, except that his slightly furrowed brow gave him away.
"My hair." Jules said softly.
"Jules, tell me about your hair." Scott asked.
"It's blond." Scott waited while Jules was thinking some more. "Like my mother's."
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Penny woke up feeling tired still and attempted to fall back asleep. She did after sometime, until someone bustled into her room.
"Get up you sleepyhead!" Emma said. She pulled open the blinds and Penny groaned when she felt the glorious sunlight fall upon her.
"I'm still sleepy." Penny said, covering her head up with her pillow.
"That's too bad. It's time to get up now. You should do your math homework, which I know you haven't finished yet." Emma told her before she left the room.
Penny rolled her eyes before sitting up. She yawned and stretched widely. Grumbling a little, she made her way to the shower rooms. She had a quick shower and washed her hair. Wrapped in a towel with her red hair dripping, she walked back into her room searching for a brush.
Penny loved brushing her hair. It was comforting somehow. She liked to think that her mother, if she had one, used to love brushing her hair as well. She would fantasize what her mother looked like and what it felt like to be hugged by someone who loved you unconditionally.
Once she was done brushing her hair, she opened her dresser drawer and pulled out some clothes. She dressed in jeans and a jumper.
Penny walked down to the cafeteria where she grabbed a tray and some breakfast. She chose her favourite, plain cereal. She sat and ate silence. For some reason she couldn't explain, she found it was hard to make friends with other people. She just didn't feel a connection to anybody. She didn't even feel particularly close to Emma or Scott, even though she has been with them since her arrival at Meadowvale. She often wondered why this was.
Penny felt like she was a friendly person who could get along well with people. It was something she couldn't describe; she didn't feel a connection to anyone. Jules was the exception. Penny knew in her heart that they were connected somehow. She felt it every time she was with him. She hadn't felt that way around any of the girls or boys that she had tried to befriend over her four-month stay. She continued thinking about Jules while she took her time finishing her cereal.
Penny returned her tray and put her bowl on the counter by the kitchens. She walked back upstairs to her room and flopped down on her bed. She picked up her math homework and attempted to finish it.
"Three `x' plus five equals twenty-six… alright-y. Now I'm supposed get the `x' by itself… then what? Oh, I don't know any of this! Maths is such a useless subject." She muttered angrily to herself.
She pulled out her calculator, and decided that a little cheating on her multiplication table wouldn't hurt.
"Okay, I know twenty-six minus five equals twenty-one. But what times three is twenty-one?" She thought about it before she tried plugging the numbers into her calculator. Before she could even try and cheat, the answer came out of nowhere.
"Seven." She heard someone say. Penny looked up to see Anna standing outside her door smiling.
"Thanks!" Penny said, once she saw who it was. "But you know, I'm supposed to learn how to do this crap by myself."
"Maths isn't crap. It was possibly my favourite subject in school." Anna said.
"Well it might have been my favourite subject if I could remember any of it. This is Grade eight stuff supposedly. I should be at a grade 12." Penny said sounding incensed. Anna sat down beside her on her bed.
"I know it's frustrating, but you just have to be patient. It will come back." Anna said with hopes of lifting Penny's spirits.
Penny turned and looked at Anna. "You really think so?" She asked.
"Yes, I think so. Of course I could be wrong, but don't give up hope, Honey. That's the worst that you could do."
"I know. It's just getting more and more frustrating only seeing your life with half the pieces." Penny said.
"Well I know this won't cheer you up that much, but I have your favourite treat here if you want it. I just wanted to say thank you for yesterday." She handed Penny a chocolate bar from Belgium.
"Oh, thank you! I love Belgian chocolate!" She hugged Anna.
"You're welcome." Anna said, smiling. She spied Penny's calculator and asked,
"I thought you weren't allowed to use your calculator for this unit?" Penny looked sheepish when she let go of Anna.
"Well, I just wanted to use it for this one question and then you helped me, so now I don't need it anymore. Besides, I can barely even use it properly. It's a stupid, useless, mugglish contraption that seems to hate me." Penny responded quickly.
"Mugglish? What does that mean?" Anna asked with a weird look on her face.
"I don't know. I think I just made up the word right now. Or maybe not. I could have heard it somewhere." She replied with a wave of her dismissive hand.
"Oh, but try not to use the calculator any more. I want you to do well." Anna said getting up from the bed.
"Alright." Penny agreed. "Thanks for the chocolate, again."
"You're welcome, again. I'll see you later." Anna said as Penny was already getting back to her homework.
"Yup, bye!" Penny said without looking up. Anna lingered at the edge of her door for a moment, looking at the small, athletic girl. Anna's brows were knitted together as she was doing some quick thinking. She shook her head and the look passed from her faced as she cleared her head of those thoughts. She walked away from Penny's room without a thought on her mind.
Penny somehow managed to finish doing her maths homework before her appointment with Scott. Maybe she had used her calculator a little, but all in all, she felt that she had done well. She went down to the cafeteria where she grabbed an apple for the journey over to Scott's office.
She munched happily on her sweet apple, still high on the feeling of finally accomplishing some homework. She threw her apple core out in garbage can down the hall from Scott's office. She was just about to knock when the door opened and she found herself looking at the very person who she was dreaming about all last night.
Jules looked up and saw the face of the girl who had in torments all night long. They stared at each other for a second. Then Penny spoke.
"Umm, so you finished your session then?"
"That was bloody brilliant, Penny." She thought furiously.
"Yeah, err, yeah I did. You have one now then?" He asked.
"Stupid, of course she has one! She's right here!" He told himself.
"Uh, yeah. I'd better go in." She said, but still she stood there.
"Move your legs Penny!" She told her self sternly.
"Okay, well, I'll see you later."
"This is the part when you walk away." Fortunately, for the both of them, Scott appeared at the door.
"Are you coming Penny?" He said, saving them from any further self-inflicted misery.
"Yes." She said. She walked into Scott's office without a backward glance at Jules. She felt it was probably safer this way. She was surprised for spending that much time with him already she hadn't drooled once yet. Jules was often surprised that he didn't drool over her as well. He suspected it would be quite unbecoming.
"I'll be right back." Scott told her.
Penny sat in the squishy armchair by Scott's desk. She was biting her fingernails again thinking now about how Jules must think of her.
"He probably thinks I'm some blibbering idiot," She thought. "Great, just great."
"Everything alright, Penny?" Scott questioned once he came back. He knew her well enough to know that when she bit her nails, something was bothering her. She quickly pulled her fingers away and responded
"Yes." He looked at her intently. She cleared her throat. A sudden thought came to her and she was surprised that she hadn't thought about it more. She decided to tell Scott about it.
"Actually, something peculiar happened yesterday."
"Really? Care to tell me what it is?" He said, leaning back in his desk chair.
"Well, I don't know exactly what it was. More of a moment, really. Jules might have mentioned it to you." When she said his name, she blushed every so slightly, but Scott didn't notice it.
"No, he didn't mention anything about yesterday." He said.
"Oh. We were at the zoo with the kids and Anna, and walking through the reptile house and Jules and I were staring at this snake. And this feeling came over me. It came over Jules too."
"What was it like?" he asked.
"It was big, and green. I think it was a Boa Constrictor, or something." Scott laughed.
"No, not the snake. What was the feeling like? Were you happy, sad, scared? Anything that comes to mind?"
Penny thought hard about it for a moment, trying hard to place herself back in the situation.
"I'm not sure exactly what I was feeling, only that I know I've felt it before. I think the snake symbolized something for me, and Jules too. Him more so I think-he was in a trance, or something like that, longer than I was." She said.
They sat in silence together for a few more minutes. Scott could clearly tell she was trying to relive that moment and he waited for her to collect her thoughts.
"What do you think this means?" She asked him after awhile.
"Good question. I'm not sure what it means. Maybe we'll find out. Were you afraid of the snake at all?" He asked.
"Oh no, I know that for sure. Why do you ask?"
"I was just thinking maybe you had an experience where you received a bite or something, or one might have startled you and it stuck fast in your memory. But I don't think so if you didn't fear it all." He stated.
"Yeah, I agree with that. But I know it did mean something to me at one time." She said resolutely.
"Has anything like this happened before since the incident?" Scott asked.
"No, but it happened again at the zoo." Penny replied.
"Again?" Said Scott.
To Penny, he seemed just mildly surprised, but he was shocked and masked it well.
"Yeah, I was looking at this lion, and it was much stronger that time for me. It was almost like time stood still for that moment. I wasn't aware of anything happening around me. And then it passed."
"It was the same feeling as before?"
"Yes and no. I felt more, well…" Penny struggled to find a word. "Confident." She finally added.
"Confident? That's interesting. The snake didn't make you feel this way?"
"No." She assured him.
Scott sat in silence for a while with his fingertips together, leaning back in his chair, and looking up at the ceiling. Penny was forcibly reminded of someone else, but she couldn't think of whom. Scott spoke, and the moment passed.
"I made great progress with Jules today in his hypnosis," Penny blushed a little again, "So I was thinking that if we make the same progress today with you, then we should have one more individual session each before we start them together. How does that sound?"
Penny was surprised by this new information. "Together, so soon?"
"I think you are both ready."
"Well as long as you think so, I think so, too. I trust you, Scott." Penny said.
"That's good to hear," Scott said with a smile. "Let's get started, shall we?" Scott got up from his chair and Penny followed him into the other room.
Please review! :)
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